Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Foreign Reports: Libyan Flotilla Ship contacted by IDF

6:21 AM (Wednesday, July 14) We'll soon be continuing to follow events in a new post.

In the meantime we have reports from overnight that the engine on the Amalthea is damaged and that is why they are going so slow, and their GPS is intermittently down for reasons unknown.

AP is reporting that 4 IDF Naval boats stopped the ship. IDF sources do not confirm this report.

12:07 AM (Wednesday, July 14)

Amalthea's GPS tracking has been turned off. Where is the ship?

Meanwhile here's a video of passenger on Amalthea stating he wants to die as a Shahid. Sound familiar?(Hattip: MereRhetoric)

11:14 PM At only 1.5 knots and over 60 Nautical Miles from El-Arish, the boat has effectively stopped. Are they going to sleep for the night, or are they still trying to figure out how to get to Gaza?

10:25 PM Forgot to mention this before, but the Amalthea has now officially listed El-Arish as its destination.

10:08 PM Sharp Southerly turn on the part of the Amalthea (is someone drunk steering that ship?)

9:46 PM The Muqata welcomes all IDF military units using this blog for real-time updates.

9:19 PM Did the Amalthea just pull a feint or is he simply course correcting? The ship has changed course from 123 degree to 119 degrees, pointing him more towards Gaza. Is the ship trying to slip in through Egyptian territorial waters? Stay tuned. (By the way, there is no deep water port in Gaza).

8:58 PM It appears that the Amalthea is changing course to the El-Arish port.

7:47 PM IDF issues statement that they did not issue ultimatum, rather they said the should could not be allowed to enter Gaza port.

One of the owners of the Libyan vessel Almathea headed towards Gaza said on Tuesday that if Israel will only allow the ship to dock in Ashdod instead of reaching Gaza, the crew will instead unload the humanitarian goods in the Egyptian port of El-Arish. The activists would then transfer the goods by land to Gaza.

"If this is the only option put forward by the Israeli authorities, we will choose to sail to the port of El-Arish and transfer the assistance by ground to Gaza," Greek businessman Aleksei Angeolopoulos said in an interview with the Arabic newspaper Ashraq al-Awsat.